Column | Eleven years later, Trump may finally have the best friend he wanted

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

84% : When Putin's invasion got underway, Trump described the push as "genius" and "savvy."
71% : His private company still owned the Miss Universe Organization, for example, and Trump was looking forward to that year's pageant, hosted at Crocus City Hall in Moscow.
66% : When Putin won reelection in March 2018 after a dubious vote, Trump called to offer his congratulations -- despite specific instructions from his staff that he not congratulate the authoritarian on his continuation of power.
56% : End of carouselThere was one part of the upcoming pageant that seemed to hold particular appeal for Trump.
55% : So instead of focusing heavily on politics, Trump was focused on promoting the Trump Organization.
46% : This did not obviously dissuade Trump from embracing the Russian president, however.
45% : Over the course of the first three years of his presidency, Trump and Putin spoke at least 16 times.
44% : Trump is known to pick up the phone and call friends and allies at all hours; it's certainly not impossible that he did so with Russia's president at some point in time while serving in the White House.
42% : Trump and Putin met in Finland that July, talking behind closed doors with no one but their translators for several hours.
36% : Once Trump announced his bid for the Republican nomination in 2016 -- triggering the sale of the Miss Universe Organization as part of the corporate backlash to the anti-immigrant rhetoric he used in that announcement -- his apparent affection for Putin became a distinct liability.
36% : Again, we don't know what Trump and Putin might have spoken about since Trump became a private citizen again.
34% : The day after he fired FBI Director James B. Comey in an effort to derail the probe into Russia's interference efforts, Trump welcomed Putin's top diplomat into the Oval Office.
30% : When they emerged, Trump suggested that Putin's denial of having interfered in the 2016 election was just as credible as the intelligence community's determination that he had.
20% : Trump had been flirting with running in 2012, settling instead for a demure endorsement of the eventual nominee, Mitt Romney.

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